pydoll-python 3.0.0

Browser automation for Python over raw CDP.
No WebDriver, no driver process, sync or async, and your Playwright scripts run on it with one import.

Documentation · Quick start · Playwright · Features · Support

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Pydoll drives the Chrome or Edge already on your machine over the DevTools Protocol. There is no WebDriver binary and no driver process between your code and the browser, so the usual automation markers (navigator.webdriver, --enable-automation, Runtime.enable) are never there to begin with. It clicks, types and scrolls like a person, applies coherent fingerprint profiles, handles Cloudflare Turnstile, and extracts typed data from the page. The API comes in a synchronous and an asynchronous form, and an existing Playwright script runs on it by changing one import.

Why Pydoll?

• Nothing to patch: a direct CDP connection over WebSocket. No driver binary, no navigator.webdriver flag, no version-matching, and no stealth fork to keep up to date.
• Fingerprint injection: make the browser report a fully consistent identity with tab.apply_fingerprint(): User-Agent, Client Hints, navigator, WebGL, canvas, screen, fonts, timezone and locale, all aligned. The overrides survive toString and prototype introspection and propagate into Web Workers, so lie-detection checks like CreepJS's don't flag them.
• Humanized interactions: mouse movement along Bezier curves, realistic typing, and scroll physics. Often enough to pass behavioral challenges like Cloudflare Turnstile or reCAPTCHA v3, depending on your browser and IP reputation.
• Sync or async, fully typed: from pydoll import Chrome gives you the asyncio API, from pydoll.sync import Chrome the blocking one, with the same names, methods and defaults. Type-checked with mypy, full IDE autocompletion.
• Playwright-compatible: keep your Playwright script and change one import. Locators, get_by_role, auto-waiting, routes, dialogs and downloads keep their semantics, on Pydoll's connection.
• Network control: intercept requests to block ads and trackers, monitor traffic for API discovery, and make authenticated HTTP requests that inherit the browser session.
• Shadow DOM and iframes: full support for shadow roots (including closed) and cross-origin iframes, with the same find(), query() and click() inside them.
• Structured extraction: define a Pydantic model, call tab.extract_all(), and get typed, validated objects back.

Installation

pip install pydoll-python

Python 3.10 or newer, and Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge installed. No WebDriver, no browser download, no Node.

Quick start

Open a page, find elements by how you'd describe them to a person, and interact with humanized timing:

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome, Key

async def google_search(query: str):
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()
        await browser.set_window_maximized()
        await tab.go_to('https://www.google.com')

        search_box = await tab.find(tag_name='textarea', name='q')
        await search_box.type_text(query, humanize=True)
        await tab.keyboard.press(Key.ENTER)

        first_result = await tab.find(tag_name='h3', text='autoscrape-labs/pydoll', timeout=10)
        await first_result.click(humanize=True)
        await asyncio.sleep(5)
        print(f"Page loaded: {await tab.title()}")

asyncio.run(google_search('pydoll site:github.com'))

The same script without async: import from pydoll.sync and drop the awaits. The sync API is generated from the async one, so it never lags behind, and callbacks still work.

from pydoll.sync import Chrome, Key

with Chrome() as browser:
    tab = browser.start()
    tab.go_to('https://www.google.com')

    tab.find(tag_name='textarea', name='q').type_text('pydoll site:github.com', humanize=True)
    tab.keyboard.press(Key.ENTER)

    tab.find(tag_name='h3', text='autoscrape-labs/pydoll', timeout=10).click(humanize=True)
    print(f"Page loaded: {tab.title()}")

When the goal is data rather than interaction, define a model and let Pydoll extract it, typed and validated:

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome, ExtractionModel, Field

class Quote(ExtractionModel):
    text: str = Field(selector='.text')
    author: str = Field(selector='.author')
    tags: list[str] = Field(selector='.tag')

async def main():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()
        await tab.go_to('https://quotes.toscrape.com')

        quotes = await tab.extract_all(Quote, scope='.quote', timeout=5)
        for quote in quotes:
            print(f'{quote.author}: {quote.text}')

asyncio.run(main())

Getting started takes you from an empty folder to a working script; every example in the docs has a Sync and an Async tab.

Already on Playwright?

Keep your script. Change one import and it runs on Pydoll's CDP connection, with Pydoll's stealth underneath.

from pydoll.playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright  # was: from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

with sync_playwright() as p:
    browser = p.chromium.launch()
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto('https://quotes.toscrape.com/login')

    page.get_by_label('Username').fill('john')
    page.locator('#password').fill('SecretPass123')
    page.get_by_role('button', name='Login').click()
    page.wait_for_url('**/')
    print(page.get_by_role('link', name='Logout').is_visible())
    browser.close()

pydoll.playwright.async_api is the async flavor. The layer covers the browser automation surface: Playwright, Browser, BrowserContext, Page, Frame, Locator, ElementHandle, Keyboard, Mouse, routes, dialogs and downloads. expect() assertions, fixtures, tracing and the test runner are out of scope. When you need what Playwright can't do, page.tab is the Pydoll Tab underneath:

with page.tab.expect_cloudflare_turnstile():
    page.goto('https://site-with-turnstile.com')

Bring your Playwright script is the walkthrough; Playwright API is the full compatibility matrix.

Staying undetected

Fingerprint injection

Pydoll can also make the browser report a different identity. tab.apply_fingerprint() overrides the surface that fingerprinting scripts read (User-Agent and Client Hints, navigator, WebGL, canvas, screen, fonts, timezone and locale) and keeps those values consistent with each other.

Spoofing a fingerprint is less about changing the values than about not getting caught changing them. Modern anti-bot scripts inspect how a property was defined: a naive Object.defineProperty leaves a fake toString, an own-property where a prototype getter should be, or an override that a phantom iframe or a Web Worker can see straight through. Pydoll handles this: injected getters read as native under toString and prototype introspection, and the same identity is replayed inside dedicated, shared and service workers.

It also neutralizes the headless tells, chiefly the SwiftShader WebGL renderer that gives away a GPU-less browser, so headless=True is no longer an automatic giveaway. That is what lets a plain Google search run in headless mode. (Cloudflare Turnstile in headless is still under study.)

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome

from examples.fingerprints import FINGERPRINTS

async def spoof_fingerprint():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()

        # Apply before navigating: the JS overrides register on every new document.
        await tab.apply_fingerprint(FINGERPRINTS['windows11_rtx3060_nyc'])

        await tab.go_to('https://abrahamjuliot.github.io/creepjs/')
        print('Fingerprint applied.')
        await asyncio.sleep(5)

asyncio.run(spoof_fingerprint())

In our testing it passed each of these fingerprint and bot-detection suites without being flagged:

A fingerprint is only as strong as its weakest layer. Anti-bot systems correlate signals across all of them. A browser that renders as macOS while its Accept-Language says Brazilian Portuguese, its timezone says Tokyo, and its IP geolocates to Germany is more suspicious than a browser you never touched. apply_fingerprint() keeps the layers it controls consistent, but you own the rest: the profile must match the real Chrome binary you drive (the network-layer TLS / HTTP2 fingerprint is authentic and cannot be spoofed) and the geography of your egress IP or proxy. The deep dive on browser fingerprinting and the Timezone and Locale Consistency section explain why a locale that contradicts the IP gets you blocked.

Fingerprint Injection Docs

Cloudflare Turnstile

Pydoll handles Cloudflare Turnstile the same way a person does: it finds the widget and places a realistic, humanized click on it. Whether Turnstile accepts the click depends on your browser fingerprint and IP reputation, which is why the two sections above come first.

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome

async def solve_turnstile():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()

        # Waits for the Turnstile widget, performs a realistic click,
        # and continues once it settles.
        async with tab.expect_cloudflare_turnstile():
            await tab.go_to('https://site-with-turnstile.com')

        print('Turnstile handled, continuing...')

asyncio.run(solve_turnstile())

_{Pydoll getting past a Cloudflare Turnstile challenge with a realistic, humanized click.}

Features

The sections above cover the flows most people start with. The rest is below: click any item to expand a short explanation, a runnable example, and a link to its full guide.

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome, ExtractionModel, Field

class Quote(ExtractionModel):
    text: str = Field(selector='.text', description='The quote text')
    author: str = Field(selector='.author', description='Who said it')
    tags: list[str] = Field(selector='.tag', description='Tags')

async def extract_quotes():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()
        await tab.go_to('https://quotes.toscrape.com')

        quotes = await tab.extract_all(Quote, scope='.quote', timeout=5)

        for q in quotes:
            print(f'{q.author}: {q.text}')  # fully typed, IDE autocomplete works
            print(q.model_dump_json())       # pydantic serialization built-in

asyncio.run(extract_quotes())

await tab.mouse.move(500, 300, humanize=True)
await tab.mouse.click(500, 300, humanize=True)
await tab.mouse.drag(100, 200, 500, 400, humanize=True)

button = await tab.find(id='submit')
await button.click(humanize=True)

# Default is fast, non-humanized movement
await tab.mouse.click(500, 300)

shadow = await element.get_shadow_root()
button = await shadow.query('.internal-btn')
await button.click()

# Discover all shadow roots on the page
shadow_roots = await tab.find_shadow_roots()
for sr in shadow_roots:
    checkbox = await sr.query('input[type="checkbox"]', raise_exc=False)
    if checkbox:
        await checkbox.click()

from pydoll import Chrome

async with Chrome() as browser:
    tab = await browser.start()

    async with tab.request.record() as capture:
        await tab.go_to('https://example.com')

    capture.save('flow.har')
    print(f'Captured {len(capture.entries)} requests')

await tab.save_bundle('page.zip')
await tab.save_bundle('page-inline.zip', inline_assets=True)

# Log in via UI
await tab.go_to('https://my-site.com/login')
await (await tab.find(id='username')).type_text('user')
await (await tab.find(id='password')).type_text('pass123')
await (await tab.find(id='login-btn')).click()

# Make authenticated API calls using the browser session
response = await tab.request.get('https://my-site.com/api/user/profile')
user_data = response.json()

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome, FetchEvent
from pydoll.protocol.fetch.events import RequestPausedEvent
from pydoll.protocol.network.types import ErrorReason

async def block_images():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab = await browser.start()

        async def block_resource(event: RequestPausedEvent):
            request_id = event['params']['requestId']
            resource_type = event['params']['resourceType']

            if resource_type in ['Image', 'Stylesheet']:
                await tab.fail_request(request_id, ErrorReason.BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT)
            else:
                await tab.continue_request(request_id)

        await tab.enable_fetch_events()
        await tab.on(FetchEvent.REQUEST_PAUSED, block_resource)

        await tab.go_to('https://example.com')
        await asyncio.sleep(3)
        await tab.disable_fetch_events()

asyncio.run(block_images())

from pydoll import ChromiumOptions

options = ChromiumOptions()

options.browser_preferences = {
    'profile': {
        'default_content_setting_values': {
            'notifications': 2,
            'geolocation': 2,
        },
        'password_manager_enabled': False
    },
    'intl': {
        'accept_languages': 'en-US,en',
    },
    'browser': {
        'check_default_browser': False,
    }
}

import asyncio

from pydoll import Chrome

async def scrape_page(url, tab):
    await tab.go_to(url)
    return await tab.title()

async def concurrent_scraping():
    async with Chrome() as browser:
        tab_google = await browser.start()
        tab_ddg = await browser.new_tab()

        results = await asyncio.gather(
            scrape_page('https://google.com/', tab_google),
            scrape_page('https://duckduckgo.com/', tab_ddg)
        )
        print(results)

from pydoll.decorators import retry
from pydoll.exceptions import ElementNotFound, NetworkError

@retry(
    max_retries=3,
    exceptions=[ElementNotFound, NetworkError],
    on_retry=my_recovery_function,
    exponential_backoff=True
)
async def scrape_product(self, url: str):
    # scraping logic
    ...

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, whether that is a bug report, a docs fix, or a new feature. If you are not sure where to start, open an issue and we can figure it out together. CONTRIBUTING.md has the dev setup, how to run the tests, and the code style and commit conventions. With one maintainer right now, a clear reproduction or a focused pull request genuinely helps.

Support

A few ways to help Pydoll:

• Star the repo so more people find it (yes, the joke at the top still stands).
• Report a bug or a rough edge you hit. A good issue is worth a lot.
• Improve a docs page, or answer someone else's question in the issues.
• Sponsor the project on GitHub if it saves you time at work.

Any of these keeps the project moving.

License

Pydoll is released under the MIT License. Use it in personal or commercial projects, as long as you keep the copyright notice.